he house down
because his wife took up his glass of beer and drank before he did.
Nearly had a fit. Said his dignity as a husband was damaged. Then he
turned to me and asked whether even in England a wife would be so bold
and bad?"

"What did you say?"

"I didn't say anything. I looked sick."

"That's no use. You should say a great deal, and wave your arms about
and hammer on the table. You don't know how to show emotion."

"I should hope not," says the Englishman. "But German women are always
telling me they envy the women in our country."

"That's their politeness," I assure him. "They don't mean it. They're
as happy as the day is long. Besides, Germans don't get drunk and beat
their wives with pokers. You know perfectly well that most
Englishmen----"

But, of course, whatever you say about German women of the present day
can be contradicted by anybody who chooses to describe one at either
end of the scale, for the contrasts there are violent. You will find
in the same street a woman who exercises a profession, lives more or
less at her club, and is as independent as her brother; and women who
are household drudges, with neither leisure nor spirit for any
occupation that would enrich their minds.

CHAPTER XIII

HOUSEWIVES (_Continued_)

In Germany the home is furnished by the bride's parents, and the
household linen forms part of her trousseau and is marked by her
monogram. In describing the furniture of a German flat, you must first
decide whether you are going to choose one furnished to-day by a
fashionable young woman in Berlin or Hamburg; or one furnished by her
parents twenty to twenty-five years ago. Modern German furniture is
quite easily suggested to the English imagination, because some of it
looks as if the artist had visited our Arts and Crafts Exhibitions and
then made his own designs in a nightmare; while some has accepted
English inspiration and adapted itself wisely and cleverly to German
needs. To-day a German bride will have in her bedroom a wardrobe with
a big mirror, a toilet table or chest, a marble-topped washstand and
two narrow bedsteads, all of fumed wood. If she has money and
understanding the things have probably come from England, not from an
emporium, but from one of our artists in furniture whom the Germans
know better and value more highly than we do ourselves. But if she has
money only she can buy florid pretentious stuff that outdoes in
ugliness the worst production